Picture of Gustav and Augusta Freiwald, as well as four of their children. Date unknown. Likely taken around the time of the home’s construction.

(Photo courtesy of Dustin Carsey and Steven Unger)

 

 

View of Queen Anne-style turret and porch, facing Northeast Schuyler Street.

(Photo courtesy of Dustin Carsey and Steven Unger)

 

 

View of Queen-Anne-accented Craftsman dormer facing Northeast Schuyler Street.

(Photo courtesy of Dustin Carsey and Steven Unger)

 

 

Front view of the Freiwald House at night

(Photo courtesy of Dustin Carsey and Steven Unger)

 

 

View of the dining room for the house. Notice the wood ceiling feature painted white. This was originally dark wood, and was painted white during the Bed and Breakfast renovation in the 1990s.

(Photo courtesy of Dustin Carsey and Steven Unger)

 

 

View of the second parlor/living room where the interview took place. In front is the original fireplace.

(Photo courtesy of Dustin Carsey and Steven Unger)

 

 

Another view of the second parlor/living room where the interview took place. In front is the original fireplace.

(Photo courtesy of Dustin Carsey and Steven Unger)

 

 

View of the Front Parlor/Smoking Room looking out to the adjacent Living Area/Second Parlor where our interview was conducted. This front parlor (where the organ is) is where George Sydnor has his bedroom. This is also the entryway where the original dark wood sliding door is.

(Photo courtesy of Dustin Carsey and Steven Unger)

 

 

The main bathroom of the house with the original clawfoot, cast-iron bathtub

(Photo courtesy of Dustin Carsey and Steven Unger)

 

 

View of the Kitchen

(Photo courtesy of Dustin Carsey and Steven Unger)

 

View of the front of the Freiwald House (Daytime)

(Photo courtesy of Dustin Carsey and Steven Unger)

 

 

Death certificate for Olga Freiwald (1912)

Death certificate for Walter Freiwald (1918)

Original Script 

Hello, I’m Carter Ause, and welcome to the Preserve Portland podcast, where we talk with the owners of Portland’s historic homes and try to uncover the stories behind them. 

Today we’re going to be looking at the Gustav Freiwald House on Northeast 15th and Schuyler in Portland’s Irvington neighborhood. 

If you’re unfamiliar with the house, simply Google Irvington Victorian, and the first thing you’ll see is a picture of this house. 

It is a big blue house with extensive white trim, craftsman-style dormers, and a flashy turret on the corner. 

Since 1993, the house has operated as the Lion and the Rose Bed and Breakfast. 

Recently, I got the chance to sit down with the current owners of the Lion and the Rose, Dustin Carsey, and Steven Unger. 

The home at the moment is sparsely furnished, but that’s because Dusty and Steve just finished their second estate sale.

The home has been on the market for the last two years, and the two of them are eager to sell.

But before they got a chance to leave the house, I wanted to sit down with them and get an inside look into the history of this house, and what it means for the Irvington neighborhood.

I began the interview by asking Steven Unger about the property.

In 2002, Dusty and Steve moved to Portland, Oregon from the San Francisco Bay Area. 

When Steve lost his job in the tech industry, following the dot-com bust of 2001, both he and Dusty were exploring their options outside of San Francisco. 

I wanted to get a sense of when they met, as well as why they pursued Bed and Breakfasts in the first place. 

Even though Dusty and Steve enjoyed living in San Francisco, Dusty was getting concerned about what the future looked like for the both of them given the recent tech bust.

And so the Freiwald house began a new life. But this house had many stories and many lives that wandered its halls.

The first story of the house stands with the Freiwald family.

After construction, life set into motion at the house, where Gustav and Augusta raised five children – Alfred, Olga, Walter, Hilda, and Eleanor. 

Gustav attempted dabbling in different investment schemes, but was largely unsuccessful,

regularly selling parcels of land to a variety of prospectors. 

He was known to be one of the earliest owners of an automobile in the Portland area. 

At the time, car ownership was a sign of wealth and status. Steve pointed out to me that the house had two bathrooms, which in 1905 was a luxury. 

The family gradually became known for their philanthropy and enjoyed a quiet, happy life on 15th and Schuyler. 

One part of living on 15th that was quite loud was the streetcar that ran up and down 15th.

By 1912, Portland’s streetcar network reached as far North as St. Johns, as far South as Sellwood, and as far east as Parkrose and Montavilla. 

The city’s identity was formed during this era. Most of Portland’s development took place between 1890 and 1930. 

The neighborhood of the Freiwald House, Irvington, was no exception. 

When the neighborhood was originally platted, most of the neighborhood was the property of William and Elizabeth Jane Irving. 

The Irvings acquired the land as part of the Donation Land Claim Act in 1851. 

In 1882, Irving sold the land claim to David Thompson, Ellis Hughes, and John Brazee for roughly $62,000. 

Then in the 1890s, Portland received an enormous economic boost from the construction of the first Morrison Bridge as well as extensive connections with the railroad. 

With an already booming timber industry, Portland became one of the fastest-growing cities in the United States. 

Things only ramped up further in 1905. 

After the Lewis and Clark Exposition, over a million visitors flocked to the Portland area. 

The Freiwalds, as a result, became one of 100,000 new residents arriving in Portland between 1905 and 1910. 

As of 2010, Irvington is listed as a National Historic District. 

Today, the neighborhood is an upper-middle-class enclave. The area has good schools, a rich collection of early-20th century architecture, and steadily rising property values. 

But for years, Irvington was heavily disinvested, and a lot of that was because of Portland’s long history of racist housing policies that forced African-Americans into North and inner-Northeast Portland, excluding them from buying in other parts of the city.  

So what does all this have to do with the house?

Well, the truth of the matter is, hardship and neglect are part of the home’s history. 

Tragedy hit the Freiwald family early. 

In 1912, Gustav and Augusta lost their 18-year-old daughter Olga after a medical procedure left a blockage in her lung. 

Six years later, their son Walter also passed away, also from a lung condition. 

Walter’s death forced Gustav to reconsider how he was going to use the property. 

Then in 1922, he converted the house into a duplex and added a two-car garage to accommodate Walter’s family. 

Things started to take a turn for the worst. After Gustav and Augusta died in the 1920s, the remaining Freiwalds became financially strained. 

Things only got worse during the Great Depression. 

After Alfred died in 1936, his widow owned the property shortly before the home was foreclosed

The home then came under the ownership of the Homeowners Loan Corporation. 

For years, the house was right on the edge of areas the HOLC considered “blighted” and “undesirable.”

Lenders across the country, as part of the housing policy of the Federal Housing Administration, and gave out loans to homebuyers based on the level of risk set by the HOLC. 

The HOLC then determined which areas were the lowest and highest risk to lend FHA-backed loans for homebuyers. 

This forced millions of African-Americans into living in neighborhoods determined by the HOLC to be high-risk areas, which were colored red, hence the term “redlining.” 

This meant that for decades, no one saw any financial benefit to owning the Freiwald House.

As a result, the property fell into years of disrepair under a variety of owners. 

After the HOLC acquired the property, a slough of owners bought the deed to the Freiwald House. 

During the Second World War, the home was used as a boarding house. 

After the war, ownership of the property changed multiple times. 

Then in 1957, a man by the name of George Sydnor acquired the property. 

He paid the previous owner a little over $2,000 for the entire 7,500 square foot property. Calculated for inflation, that’s roughly $20,000 today. 

Sydnor bought the property at a pivotal moment. Because at the time, a massive change was happening just down the street. 

Lloyd Center Mall was under construction. When Lloyd Center opened in 1960, it was the largest shopping mall in the country. 

The mall came at a time of massive urban renewal projects throughout the City of Portland. 

As a result of increased commercial development in the area, Sydnor was offered multiple times to sell the house to make way for new commercial buildings. 

At every step of the way, Sydnor refused. Had Sydnor sold the house in the 1960s, I may not be speaking to you today. 

I wanted to follow up with Dusty and Steve and see what they thought about George. Here’s what they had to say. 

After the ownership of George Sydnor, the house was purchased by Lynda Richardson and Steve Loman in 1992. 

Following a wave of new investment in the 1990s, Richardson and Loman converted the house into a bed and breakfast. 

It has been The Lion and the Rose ever since.

A variety of alterations took place to the house over the years. Electrical wiring and plumbing were added where sliding doors separated the dining room from the sitting room. 

Bathrooms were also added where there were once closets. The floors of the kitchen were sanded and finished. Dusty and Steve described to me how the floors of the kitchen have been sanded so many times that they are “down to the nails.”

One of the features that stuck out to me about the interior was the color of the original sliding door in the front parlor. As Dusty explains.

Because George kept an armoire up against the door for decades, a little patch of the floor has a slight dip and discoloration. 

When I entered the house for the second time, much of the house had been emptied. 

To have imagined what the house looked like long ago made me curious. 

Another one of my favorite parts of the house is the attic space, where Dusty and Steve had their loft set up. 

In the attic, you can see the original wood exposed in plain view. 

Dusty often reveled in the fact, as did I, that this beautiful attic was built without power tools. 

But Dusty and Steve couldn’t keep the Bed and Breakfast going for long. 

Two main factors led to their decision to sell. 

One of them was the advent of Airbnb.

At the beginning of 2020, Airbnb was forced by the City of Portland to halt all entire-home vacation rentals. 

This meant Dusty and Steve saw their chance to get back into the vacation market, then COVID hit.

Since putting the house on the market, Dusty and Steve received a variety of offers. So far, the house has yet to sell.

To honor Dusty and Steve’s memory within the history of the house, I wanted to get their take on what they wanted to see happen with the property.

By this point, we had been talking for almost two hours. All of us were tired and ready to wrap things up. So I decided to end things on a bit of a sentimental note.

I’m Carter Ause, and this has been another episode of Preserve Portland, a podcast of the Historic Preservation Department at the University of Oregon. I want to thank Dusty and Steve for their wonderful time as well as Chad Randl for his guidance through this process. 

 

Thank you very much for listening.

 

Good night.

 

Music/Sound Effects

Charlie Dean Archives. “1950s Urban Renewal: The Dynamic American City (1956) – CharlieDeanArchives/Archival Footage.” YouTube. August 10, 2013. Video, 11:05. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PydFzWfkdOw.

Enterprisingengine93. “Streetcar Interior and Ambience Sound Effects 2.” YouTube. May 21, 2018. Video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mCrw-sUSyg.

Loco, Lobo. “Searching For Zelda.” Over Midnight. Free Music Archive online. September 9, 2018. Music. https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Lobo_Loco/Over_Midnight.

_____. “Sweet Dreams.” Over Midnight. Free Music Archive online. September 9, 2018. Music. https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Lobo_Loco/Over_Midnight.

Maynardcat. “Dream – The Pied Pipers 1940’s The Original Recording on 78 RPM.” YouTube. February 28, 2010. Video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-qkpa8JFYY.

MusicBoxBoy. “1905 Excelsior Record 78 RPM Talkaphone Label Played On Victor Type D Phonograph.” Youtube. June 5, 2010. Video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBXl-LynNno.

Oakley, Matt. “Around Corner (And Down A Bit).” 80’s T.V. #1. Free Music Archive online. October 20, 2014. Music. https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Matt_Oakley/80s_TV_1.

Superfools, The. “Sentimental Fields 5 – Sentimental Fields.” Astrophonics 1: Sentimental Fields. Free Music Archive online. July 10, 2011. Music. https://freemusicarchive.org/music/The_Superfools/Aristophonics_1_Sentimental_Fields.

 

Bibliography

“300 Get Licences: Scanning List Shows Cars Are Used in All Parts of the State.” The Oregon Sunday Journal (Portland, Oregon), April 25, 1909: 6.

“$350,000 Deal is Being Negotiated Vancouver and Portland Property Involved.” The Oregonian (Portland, Oregon), July 3, 1916: 1.

“Apartment Traded for Oregon Farm: Freiwald Estate Transferred for Chicago property Valued at $350,000.” The Oregonian (Portland, Oregon), August 16, 1914: 9.

“Autos, All Gems, Mystify Judges Tiny Miss Mildred Keats in Foremost Car Wins First Prize.” The Oregonian (Portland, Oregon), June 10, 1909: 12.

“Beat All Former Records: Vancouver Holiday Business Best Ever.” The Oregonian (Portland, Oregon), January 6, 1908: 13.

“Big Ranches Traded Portland Man Acquires 7284 Acres in Morrow County.” The Oregonian (Portland, Oregon), May 20, 1917: 21.

“Buys Block for $50,000: Syndicate Acquires Property in New Warehouse District.” The Oregonian (Portland, Oregon), May 13, 1909: 9.

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“Gustav Freiwald Dies.” The Oregonian (Portland, Oregon), April 29, 1924. 

“Heavy Transfers on East Side: Good Steady Demand for Suburban Residences and Business Sites.” The Oregonian (Portland, Oregon), December 20, 1908: 11.

“Important Trade Announced.” The Oregon Daily Journal (Portland, Oregon), August 12, 1914: 13.

“Main Street Deal Made: Butcher Takes Title to Valuable Business Property.” The Oregon City Courier (Oregon City, Oregon), June 15, 1916: 4.

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“Mortuary Notice.” The Oregonian (Portland, Oregon), June 3, 1918: 11.

“Mrs. A. Freiwald Dies: Resident of Portland Since 1906 Known for Philanthropies.” The Oregonian (Portland, Oregon), May 6, 1929: 12.

“Oregon City Business Lot Sold.” The Oregon Sunday Journal (Portland, Oregon), June 18, 1916: 8.

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“Star Brewery Sold Deal Made With Transfer of Shares of Stock: Freiwald Made Chairman Officers.” The Oregonian (Portland, Oregon), April 4, 1905: 5.

“The Inn.” Lion and the Rose Victorian Guest House Portland, Oregon. Accessed January 27, 2021. https://lionrose.com/the-inn/.

“Values Climb and Net Big Profits: Whole Block Purchased.” The Oregon Sunday Journal (Portland, Oregon), May 6, 1909: 8.

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Goetze, Janet. “NE Landmarks Few, But Scenic Sights Abound.” The Oregonian (Portland, Oregon), August 19, 1977: 68.

Hogue, Kendra. “To Have and To Host.” The Oregonian (Portland, Oregon), January 6, 2002: H01.

Kunkle, Kim. “Escape to Portland.” The Oregonian (Portland, Oregon), February 4, 2007: T01.

Ranzetta, Kirk, Heather Scotten, Mary Piper, and Jim Heuer. National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. Portland, Oregon: United States Department of the Interior, 2010. National Park Service.

Richardson, Lynda. National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Gustav Freiwald House, Multnomah County, Oregon. Portland, Oregon: United States Department of the Interior, 1993. National Park Service. NPS Form 10-900, Oct. 1990.

Roos, Roy E. The History & Development of Portland’s Irvington Neighborhood. Portland, Oregon: Roy E. Roos, 1997.

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